Our Story at Kobo Books

I’m a huge reader – I’ve been a book worm since I was a little kid and haven’t stopped since. There’s something unequivocal about reading a book and letting your imagination draw the narrative the way you envision it. Not only is it the only way the story was ever interpreted and ever will be; it also becomes the way you express yourself using someone’s ideas. Stories have long been a way to entertain the imaginative soul, but did you know that it is the most historical way humans would communicate to each other – even before language ever became a thing? Seriously, that blows my mind every time I think about it but it’s true. That is why we gravitate towards good stories and why we can remember minutia parts about them even though we only read through most of them once (unless they are really good which definitely warrants another read). Think about the last time you opened an accounting book, a law text, or biochemistry lab manual… How much do you remember from those? I’d say you’d be lucky to have permanently retained even 5% of that material you read. I bring this up because our recent client is actually a book store named Kobo Books. Many thought the age of physical books was dying but companies like Kobo are out here proving that theory wrong every single day. There’s something about cracking open a brand new book and sitting next to a bed lamp that can’t be replaced by even the flashiest of gadgets. However, Kobo also understands its market and sells eBooks online as well to cater to those that aren’t as sentimental as I am.

The project was a simple one, or so we thought – interior water leakage protection. Our job was to redirect water leaks by using a tarp system including pipes that could re-route water into a collection tank outside of the store. Although it was a simple job, you can imagine why it was considered an emergency. Yes, it was pouring outside for hours and yes, there were shelves of books throughout the entire store that could potentially be exposed to the water. Our job made the difference between a book shelf full of brand new books vs. ones that were damaged by the water and unsellable. We must admit though that we could not save every single book but we estimated that had we not been hired the same day of the major leakage; the store could have lost 20% of its stock on books. That’s outrageous if you think about the hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses that could’ve become a reality. Instead, only 30 books were affected by the leakage (thank goodness). So when I initially mentioned that we thought this project was going to be a simple one, boy were we wrong! The problem with the leakage was that it was occurring at three different locations spread out throughout the entire store. Had it been only one location, the job would only take 30 minutes at most. Having the other two separate leaks made the job last 4 hours longer… Regardless, we were prepared to take the necessary action to complete the job. This required us to cover 75% of the store’s roof with waterproof interior tarp. We then had to connect collection pipes at each of the leakage areas. Lastly, the tarp had to be organized so that all of the water was routed towards the collection pipes which fed into a main collection tank outside of the store (from the back). Once those were in place, it was then just a waiting game for the rain to pass. A few hours later when the rain finally stopped, we double checked the forecast just to make sure it wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Once that was verified, systems were then in place to repair the roof areas involved in the leak. However, it turned out that there were a couple more areas that were eroded to the point that another leak was eminent so that needed to be taken care of too.

Not only did we take care of the job, we also made sure this problem would not happen again. It’s always fulfilling when our clients know they are in the right hands when they choose our tarp protection company. Many times our first time clients think we only protect their store, but it’s days like today when we are able to show the other tasks our company is capable of accomplishing. In other words, ITP is here to protect you as well as inspect the integrity of your store, make professional suggests, install effective interior water leakage protection, and get the job done faster than any other competitor. Once again, we get the job done on time, every time. Till next time, have a fantastic long weekend!